Sheet feeding and stacking apparatus



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SHEET FEEDING AND STACKING APPARATUS I Filed Sept. 13, 1955 6Sheets-Sheet 6 )1 Jam M Attorney asraiss Patented Feb. 3, 1959 SHEETFEEDTNG AND 'STAfIKING APPTUS Gordon William-French, Downend, nearBristol, England, assignor to Beasley, French. & Company Limited,Bristol, England Application September 13, 1955, Serial No. 534,109

Claims priority, application Great Britain September 16, 1954 11 Claims.(Cl. 271-87) The present invention relates to delivering bags,envelopes, sheets and the like articles from machines.

Although the invention is particularly directed to the delivery from bagand envelope making machines, it is to be understood that the inventionis not limited thereto and can be applied to other machines.

The term bag used hereinafter in the description and claims is intendedto include all the articles mentioned above.

Further the invention is eminently suited for use with machinery formaking bags from paper, transparent or translucent viscose, regeneratedcellulose or like sheet materials.-

Due to the high speed of' delivery of bags from bag making machinery,the velocity of a bag when released and freed from a machine is sogreatthat when it comes into contact with a base plate or stop, the momentum(mv) of the bag is such that there is considerable danger of the bagsagging or creasing. This, it will be readily understood, becomes moreacute when a heavier bag is being dealt with, since themass isincreased.

It has been found in practice that this danger is very pronounced withan edge downward delivery to a base plate and from this to a deliverytable or belt, with which is associated a bag support.

It will be obvious that whenthe bags sag or crease on delivery, auniform register or alignment of the succes-, sive bags of the pile orstack of delivered bags cannot be obtained with the result that a smoothrunning and output of the'machi'ne are seriously affected.

The bags or the like as they are delivered should have such-a momentumthat the danger referred to above is avoided and the articles aredelivered so that a good register or alignment is obtained and thesuccessive sheets delivered laid in the same relative positions one uponthe other as these reach the bag support.

Under one feature of the present invention positive means are providedwhich become effective at a predetermined time andplace during thedelivery of a bag, whereby a braking action is applied to the velocityor speed thereof, that is tosay, the velocity or speed is momentarilystopped or retarded or slowed down to such an extent that the momentumof the bag when it contacts a base plate or stop adjacent the deliverytable has been diminished so that sagging or creasing is avoided and agood register or alignment of successive bags against the support on thedelivery table is obtained, whereby a smooth running of the machine ismaintained and a higher output per unit of time obtained;

Under another feature of the invention means are provided whereby abatch of bags already delivered on or against a base plate or stop of-amachine are held adjacent the delivery end or bottom folding roll for apredetermined time before being released to a stack or pile against asupport on a moving tape delivery, the release from-the batchbeing onebag at a time, that is to say, as a bag is delivered to the batch, thebag of the batch remote therefrom is released to the stack or pile. 7

With such an arrangement an operator may readily remove any bag or bagsintermediate of those actually stacked against the support and thoseheld adjacent to the roll.

Further features of the invention include mechanism adapted to serve ascounting apparatus and means for driving a tape or belt delivery.

The positive braking comes into operation when the bag is released orfreed-from the grippers on the delivery or bottom folding roll so thatthe velocity of the bag is slowed down to such an extent that itsmomentum when it contacts with the base plate or support is notsufficient to cause sagging or creasing.

The accompanying drawings illustrate examples of the carrying intoeffect of the invention as applied to a bag making machine.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side view showing the invention applied to the delivery sideof a bag making machine.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view showing the position of spring gatesand dabbers referred to later.

Figs. 3 and 4 are views showing the delivery spring gates.

Fig. 5 shows the bag support and carriage assembly.

Fig. 6 shows the gearing for the counting device, and

Fig. 7 is a view of a variant construction.

It is to be understood that the bag making machine is of known type andtherefore is not fully illustrated nor described, the invention residingin-the features referred to earlier.

At the delivery end of the machine there is the usual top folding roll 1and a a bottom folding roll 2. The top folding roll deals with one bagper revolution and the bottom folding roll with three bags perrevolution. The letter roll has the usual grippers 3 and strippers 4 andthe top roll a dipper and-paster (not shown) all functioning in knownmanner. The usual presser roll 5 is provided.

Forward of the top folding roll 1 and presser roll 5 in the direction ofrotation of the bottom folding roll are positive means for momentarilystopping or retarding or slowing down the velocity of the bag. Thesemeans consist of dabbers 6 which become effective on a bag 7 on thebottom folding'roll 2 at a predetermined time.

The dabbers 6, there being two in thisconstruction, are mounted onpivoted frames 8', one frame for each dabber, the pivot points for theframes being indicated by 9.

Each dabber consists of a metal base part 11) on the front of which isscrewed aresilient pad 11. The base part 1t) is mounted'on a runnertrack 12'carried by the frame 8 so that thedabber can=be moved betweenpoints X and Y to suit any length ofbag being made.

The dabbers contact the tail of a bag on the bottom folding roll whenthe bag has been freed from the grippers 3 by the strippers l in theknown way.

The swinging movements of the pivoted frames 3 (which carrythe dabbers6) towards the bottom folding roll 2 to bring the dabbers intooperation, is done by means of three equidistant cam segments 1-3 (oneonly is shown) attached to the rotating bottom folding roll 2. Each rise14 of a cam'segment 13 in-turn contacts a roller 15 on an arm 16 whichis pivoted at 1? tea frame 3. When the roller 15 leaves the cam rise 14the frame is drawn back from the bottom folding roll 2 by a spring 18. Aback stop 8:: is provided for the dabber frame 81 The spring 18 issecured at one end to the frame of the machine.

It will be appreciated that when a bag is carried round by the gripperson the bottom folding roll that the velocity of the bag is the same asthe peripheral speed of the roll. Now on the bag being freed thevelocity thereof would in the normal way continue to be practically thesame, and it is at this point that the dabbers function to momentarilyapply a brake to the velocity of the bag. The bag thereafter continuesits travel to the base plate or stop 19 at a reduced velocity so thatwhen the bag contacts said base plate or stop the momentum is such thatsagging or creasing does not take place.

The bags are eventually delivered against a bag support 20 on a carriagecarried by a moving tape or belt delivery 21.

The tapes 21 are operated by a ratchet operated driving roll 22 so thatan intermittent driveis given to the tapes 21. The roll 22 is actuatedthrough linkage 23, 24 and 25 by a roller 26 which is controlled'by aneccentric ring 27 attached to bottom folding roll 2, the links havingpivot points at 28 and 29. A screw adjustment 30 is provided for varyingthe speed of delivery tapes according to the thickness of paper used andtype of bag being made.

The tapes 21 travel along a stationary delivery table 31. The carriagecomprises a trolley 32 having the bag support 20 secured thereto. Thetrolley 32 has rollers 33 which run on the table 31, when the trolley 32moves along with the delivery tapes 21.

Pivoted at 34 and 35 to the trolley 32 are two members 36 and 37. Aspring 38 is interposed between the members. The members 36 and 37 havenoses 39 and 40. The member 36 is adapted to be turned about its pivotpoint 34 by a hand arm 41. The members 36 and 37 have gripping surfaces42 engaging the tapes 21 to enable the trolley 32 to move along with thesaid tapes when the latter are operated by the driving roll 22. When thetrolley 32 reaches the end of the tapes remote from the bottom foldingroller, or at any intermediate point, and it is desired to return thetrolley to that end of the tapes adjacent the bottom folding roller, itbecomes necessary to lift the gripping surfaces 42 away from the tapes.This is done by actuating the arm 41 and turning the member 36 about itspivot 34 so that the gripping surface on said member will be lifted upout of contact with the tape. During the turning of the member 36, thenose 39 thereof will engage the nose 40 1 of the member 37 and turn thisabout its pivot 35 and thereby lift the gripping surface of the member37 away from the tape. When the gripping surfaces are clear of the tapesthe trolley 32 is free to be moved. On release of the hand arm 41 thespring 38 returns the members 36 and 37 to normal positions with thegripping surfaces 42 engaging the tapes.

The means for holding a batch of delivered bags adjacent to the bottomfolding roll comprises spring gates or members 43, the one end of whichbears against the outer bag of the batch, and so arranged that as a bagis delivered from the roll, the outer bag of the batch, that is to say,the bag remote from the last delivered bag is released to the stock orpile.

The spring gates or members 43 are made in the form of spring steelfingers which are sweated to plates 44 on spindles 45 passing throughclamping blocks 46 mounted on upstanding members 47 secured to the frameof the machine. As shown in Fig. 4 the spring fingers may be in threesections 48, 49, 50 adapted to be detached from one another.

The spring gates are adjustable across the bottom folding roll to suitvarying widths of bags.

In this construction the spring gates are approximately 35 inch awayfrom the bottom folding roll.

Counting mechanism may be incorporated in the machine. For example itmay be desired to divide up the bags in the stack into series of 50 or100 units, and to do this some visual indication must be given. This canbe done by arranging that the particular bag, say num- 4 her 50, whendelivered is positioned above the other bags, as is indicated by 7a inFig. 1.

The mechanism for doing this consists of a counter arm 51 which as shownin Fig. 6 is moved by a cam roller 52 and counter cam 53 which latter ison the same shaft as a count change gear wheel 54 driven by toothedgearing 55 from the bottom folding roll. Now assuming that indication ofa series of 50 bags is to be given. The change gear wheel 54 would have50 teeth. For a series of bags the change gear wheel would have 100teeth.

The lower end of the counter arm is attached to a lever arm 56 havingits pivot point at 57. The other end of the arm 56 is attached to thelower end of a rod 58, the upper end of which is attached to the arm 16.When the counter arm 51 is moved by the counter cam 53 the arm 16 israised so that the roller 15 on said arm will be engaged by theappropriate cam segment rise 14 earlier than the in the normal waywhereby the dabbers will apply the braking action to a bag at a pointahead of the normal point of application. At the same time an arm 59will move the strippers upwardly so that the bag is freed earlier. Inthis way the selected bag will be delivered so as to come to positionabove the other bags as indicated at 7a in Fig. l.

When the cam action on the counter arm ceases this returns to normalposition under the influence of a spring 60, and the arm 16 andstrippers also return to normal positions.

Fig. 7 shows another way of actuating the dabbers by a linkage and levermovement 61, fulcrumed at 62 on the machine frame. This linkage andlever movement 61 is actuated by a rod 63 under spring bias 64 to returnto normal position, the rod 63 passing through a fixed bracket 65. Theback and forth movements of said rod is controlled by a cam 66, mountedon the axis of the top folding roll 1 and rotating therewith.

It will be apparent that the invention can be variously modified andchanged within the scope of the appendant claims.

I claim:

1. In a machine for delivering bags, envelopes, sheets and like articleshaving a delivery end, a driven roll at said delivery end for deliveringthe articles, stripper means adjacent to said roll for separating thearticles therefrom, and a base plate located in the path of articlesseparated from the roll by said stripper means against which thearticles normally abut, the combination of means located adjacent tosaid base plate for holding a batch containing a fixed number ofarticles delivered by said roll in the proximity of the latter andoperating in such manner as to release from the batch an article distantfrom said roll when an article is delivered to the batch by said roll,said last named means comprising at least two resilient members actingagainst the transverse edges of articles delivered by said roll.

2. The structure according to claim 1, wherein said means for holding abatch of articles is adjustable in the transverse direction of theperiphery of said roll for accommodating articles of different widths.

3. The structure according to claim 1, wherein each of said resilientmembers is a composite member consisting of resilient sections.

4. The structure according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality ofdabbers, a pivoting frame mounting said dabbers, cam means associatedwith said roll, a linkage operatively connected with said frame andactuatable by said cam means for moving said dabbers toward and awayfrom the trailing end of and for at least retarding an article while thelatter is being delivered by said roll, and means for intermittentlyvarying the position of said linkage and of said stripper means in suchmanner that said dabbers engage and arrest, and said strippers separate,a selected article before the latter reaches said base plate.

new

5. The structure according to claim 4, wherein each of said dabbersconsists of a rigid base and a resilient pad connected to said base, andsaid base is adjustably connected to said pivoting frame.

6. The structure according to claim 1, wherein said machine furthercomprises a second roll engaging with said first named roll, a pluralityof dabbers, a pivoting frame mounting said dabbers, cam means associatedwith said second roll, and a linkage operatively connected with saidframe and actuatable by said cam means for moving said dabbers into andaway from engagement with the trailing ends of, and for at leastretarding, the articles delivered by said first named roll before thearticles reach said base plate.

7. The structure according to claim 1, further comprising a supportadjacent to and movable with respect to said means for holding a batchof articles against which support the articles released by said lastnamed means are stacked, trolley means mounting said support, andconveyor means for moving said trolley means.

8. The structure according to claim 7, further comprising means fordisconnecting said trolley means from said conveyor means.

9. The structure according to claim 8, wherein said trolley meanscomprises gripping means normally engaging and moving with said conveyormeans, and said means for disconnecting said trolley means from saidconveyor means comprises lever means for moving said gripping means awayfrom said conveyor means.

10. The structure according to claim 7, wherein said conveyor meanscomprises a ratchet-operated driving roll, a linkage operativelyconnected with said driving roll, and an eccentric ring on said firstnamed roll for moving said linkage and for driving said last named roll.

11. The structure according to claim 10, further comprising means forvarying the speed of said driving roll.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

